narrator: in this special "21st century" show, 3 stories on the world's ocean. coral crusaders in the seychelles, plastics pollution a threat to us all, and saving the pacific's tuna. 115 islands in the indian oceann and over a million square kilometers of sea--the seychelles, tourist paradise and haven for fish. woman: we depend on our m marine resourcrce for evererything. wee don't have anything without

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that. narrator: the ocean, a lifeline for the island's people. but for how much longer? woman: there has been a rise inn ocean temperurure, then n you ed up with dedead corals. narrator: coral crusaders saving their reefs and their future for generations t to come. woman: the seychelles, with the resources that we have, the marine reresources, t that's whe have. t that's all wewe have re. and we d depend on o our marine resosource for e everything,g, r it's economimic activitities orr tourirism and fisisheries. we 't

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have ananything w without that. so i r realized itit was imporot to consnserve the oceanan when'm growing up and d understanding e relatitionship thahat the sseychelloisis people hahave wie oceean, with the mararine ecosysystem, and h how much we y on it for our food 'cause most of ourur food comes from thehe . and i think k i understood how important it was for us to protect it. woman: everything is connected to the ocean. we get food from

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the ocean, protection from the ocean, our climatete, our weathr is driven by processsses which e fromom the oceanan. so everyryte do o in a way o or another r is connectcted to the ocean. it t n ttegral papart of our lives. wewe're e only 455 5 square kils of land compared to over aa million square kilometers of ocean. idealally, you wowould cl the seychelles a large oceanic state. the seychehelles economys driven by tourism and fisheries are the two main drivers of our economy. antat: t the corals provide a he for different species in the ocean,n, macroinvertebrate, , fh species, but they also provide for ececonomic activities, including diving and snorkeling.

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but at t the same time, corals protect your coastline. there has been a rise in ocecean temperature. . and this h has an impact on n your corals becacause en t this leads to coral bleachingng, and then u lose the corals because ththen u endp p with dead d cols. when coral bleleached, you obsee the e white coralsls, and oncece they're e dead, theyey are usuay taken over b by tough algae. the resources that you had and the activities that youou could cary out on a cororal reef, t then 'e losst that. sims: mmost of ththe main challenges that ouour country is facing is relateted to climate change. t the reefs closer to the e inner islalands are the os ththat are most impacted from humans. ththese reefs s are more likely to didie off faster. what

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you see is that fishermen, they have to go out further and for longer to catch the same amount of fish. the price of fish goes up, and people then have to pay more for fish, which is sad.d. i'm ccurrently workrking onon t seychelllles marine spatatial planning initiative. the plplan will lolook to facice thahat we are a able to conontie with our fisisheies industryry, with o our tourismsm industry yn a susustainable e way to ensnsut we can rely o on these ececonos r future genererations to o com.

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so i if u hahave the rigight protected areas, right size and right place, then this will minimize that impact, not only to our biodiversity, but to our economy and for the people of the seychelles. antat: we carry out diving activities with the intent of cocollecting data on cocoral res to ensure that the management of pprotected a areas in seychehelles is affective. we're really looking at the state of the corals, especially with such events as coral bleaching. we looked at coral, memeasured the corals. w we lood at coral recruits and we also looked at macroinvertebrates. the ididea is s to use t this do look at effects s on different activities on coral reefs, to

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look at diseases, at pollution in coral reefs, most specific to protected areas, but also outside protected areas. mapping the reef, you can see the changes. we have e this very long perioif time where the temperature is really h high and the corals cannonot recover. so thisis has a huge impact on your marine resource on coral reefs. we have started a coral reef restoration project looking g at other ways to tryrd restore coral reefs using the corals that are more resilient and growing these corals and putting them back on the reef. sims: snpa is one of our main key partners not only because they are the organization responsible currently for managing and enforcing marine protected areas, but they also

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have seveveral monititoring pros whwhich are integral in p provig data to us. when it comes to ffuture prototected areas, the willll be thkekey people foror o discuss with how well would we manage these areaeas and what is the best apppproach. antatt: it's very i important tt we constatantly have e this goo, healthy coral covever and... i wantnt everything ththat i d o shouldakake a differerence and t shoululd have an impact. i t thk itit's a a really wononderful fg knowing thathahateve informioion yobrining ck, iti's going to o contribute to the way we do conservatation and t tha's going toto have a popositive imt on mamarine conseservation inin seychelles.

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narrator: the world produces more than 300 million tons of plastic every year. man: almost every piece of plastic ever made is still on the planet in some form or another. it's coating our lands and our oceans likeke a disease. womanan: absolutetely no doubt s birrd died as a a result of that plastic. second man: wewe really hahave o look a at ourselves and sasay, o we d deserve these beautiful ocn that was given to us?

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man: plastic is wonderful because it's durable and plastic is teterrible bececause it is durable. almost every piece of plastic ever made is still on the planet in some form or another. plastic production globally this year is expected to be more than 300 million tons, half of which we'll ususe just once and then throw awayay. by 2050,0, when te population explododes to almost 10 b billion people, it's expecd that plastic production will triple. the e problem wiwih that i is is that t today onlyla fractition of the e plastic thte produce is recycled. the rest ends up in our environment, and it's coating our land and our oceans like e a disease. garbage thrown away in the united states can make its way

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to antarcticica. plastic in o coastal wateters is pueded into the centerer of massive winnd-driven, churning cirirculr res. there are many otherr ocean currerents also divertitig the trash all around the sururfe of the ocean. in reaeality, it's just one ocean withth no boundaries. lord howe island is a world heritage site and home to migratory seaeabirds like the shearwaterer. seabirds are incredibly helpfpful because thy act l like an army of scicienti. ththey travel thousands of miles across the ocean, they pick up plastic off the surface of the ocean, they bring it back to their rockeries where they feed it to their chicks, and that provides an incredible amount of scientific data in terms of whwhere the plastic comes from,

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its distribution, , and how it breaks up on the ocean's surface. dr. jennifer lavers, she's devototed her lifife to studydye plight ofof seabirds.s. shearwaters arare incredibible birds. they migratate thousandnf miles, s stopping ononly here to breed.d. lavers: y yeah, the s stomach is very, very full, and if we look here, there''s some very darark piececes, some very light white pieces. and if you see, you know, as i push on this, it's absolutely ririgid, completely, comompletey full of plastic all the way up.

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leeson: : ugh, look k at that. lavers: absolutely no doubt that this bird didied as a reresult f that plplastic. that is literaly a gut full of plastst. it's quite alarming, isn't it? leeson: oh, it's awful. lavers: range of plastic typypes and d colors. we've e got everyg from the blues and the reds to-- leeson: : his stomacach's just filled with it. big g pieces, t. lavers:s: big, shsharp pieceses. leeson: oh, wow, look at the size of that big, black piece. lavers: that is an enormous piece of plastic. lleeson: unbnbelievable.e. look at the size of that. jen, i counted 234 pieces ofof

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plastic out of that one bibird.s that a record? lavers: not even close, unfortunately. so for the spspecies, the record is 276 pieces of plastic insidede of oe 90-day-old chick. that plastic when we weighehed it out accouod for 15% of that bird's body mass, so that's a pretty scary staatistic. . if we translate tt iinto human n terms, it gets evn worse. that would be equivalent to you and i havining somewhere around 6 or 8 kililos of plastic inside o of your stomach. it's equivalent to about 12 pizzas worth of food inside of your stomach. [birds c calling]

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that's quite a bit of plastic for just one little bird. the parents were trying to do the right t thing. there's s a t of s squid beaks in here, and ts purple color is evidence of the squid ink. it's just a shame that every now and then they got it wrong and got it wrong in a bad way. [flflies buzzining] it really is quite an ovoverwhelmiing thing.. i do hae some prpretty rough days,s, havo go homeme and realllly wrap my d arouound where d do we go frfro? man: : as a pacifific islandede, i know that the ocean is in deep

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trouble. the very authorative prprediction shows t that by the year 205050, there will be as mh plastic as there i is fish in te ocean by weightht. every country uses plastic. we need to stop rationalizing that. we need to think about re-use of plastic. single-use plasticic has got to be on itity out. anand, you knonow, plasticc shoppining bags arere a good exe of that. your fafamily does s nt need to o use them. . take a clh bag with you when you go shopping and put your shopping in there. there's an equivalent of a large garbage truck evevery minute of every y day backing upup to the ocean and d just dumping plastic into it. we really have to look at ourselves and say, do we deserve this beautiful ocean that was given to us?

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narrator: it's a $5 billion a year industry and an economic lifeline for dozens of small island nations, but for how much longer? man:n: as a pacicific islanander myself, i i would asksk one questition--will t the next ggeneration enjoy this industry as we do o now? narrator: it's fished every day and in nearly every ocean on the planet. an immense volume is captured and processed to keep up with the insatiable global demand. it's served in trendy restaurants around the world and in tin cans for school lunches. they're among the most valuable

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commodities in the ocean. it's tuna. yellowfin, big eye, albacacore, and skipjack. 4 1/2 million tons of tuna are caughtt each year, and nearly half of the global supply is caught in the western a and central pacif. it's a $5 billion a year industry and an economic lifeline for dozens of small island nations, but for how much longer? man: people consider the ocean an endless bounty, but the ocean is far r from unlimited. narrator: technology is making it much easier to c catch tuna, and that in turn is threatening a whole way of life. man: the pacific if so depenendt on these fisheries'' resources that a collapse could be devastating. and it might be decades for them to recover from that, if f at all. narratoror: the fishsheries of e western n and centtral pacifific cover 40 0 million sqsquare killometers. i it's a a vast ara populated by smamall islandd

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countries, w which, according to international law, own all of the fish within 200 miles of their coastline. but most countries can't afford navy shipips or aircraft to patatrol their waters, leaving their prized fishing grounds a target for ocean thieves. 17 of the countries are part of an alliance that help manage and protect their most valuable asset--fish. based on the solomon islands, a multinational task force for thehe pacific i islands forumum fisheries agency is tracki some 2,000 commercial ships that are operating within the jurisdiciction of f the pacififc islsland countrtries. man: so if you adjust the track. it's not licensed so it should not be doing those tracks. thiss is definitely not innocent passage. narrator: each ship transmits a signgnal that is similar to an aircraft transponder, whihich provides vital clues as to whether the boat is operating

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legally. man on radio: so as you can see out the front window t there, te first fishing contact puts us right at 4-2 on my plot. narrator: despite these efforts, in the past 10 years, overall catch rates, both illegal and legitimate, have more than doubled. and while skipjack are ststill abundant, the p prized bluefin is already oveverfished and big eye and yellowfin stocks are declining. that's why the un development program has worked with small island countries to bring in a a fisheries conventnn and to manage fish stocks. andrew hudson is an ocean management expert with undp. hudsdson: the gogood ns isis the e pacific isisland couuntries have taken concrete ststeps towardrd improg their understandiding of the fisherieies, improving andnd puputting in p place management regegimes and m monitoringg compliance regimes that if they carry them forward in full, which i thihink they're capablef doing, could lead to true sustaininability for those fisheries going forward. narrator: managing the tuna fisheries depends u upon knowing more about what tuna do in the ocean. researchers for the

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secretariat of the pacific community are tagging thousands of tuna with devices that will provide important data. tags tell scientists how far tuna travel, how fast they grow, and how deep they go for food. the tagging essentially allows the tuna to talk to scientists who will use the information to protect them f from being overfishshed. womanan: this one was in 2011 ad we see itit only now. narratator: more than 60,000 tas have been released. nowhere are people more protective of their fisheries than in the western and central pacific. it's a way of life. it defines their culture. it's how isislanders make their living ad feed their families and without it, everything falls apart. in the coastal village of noro in the solomon islands, the morning commute consists of islanders boarding the company

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van bound for ththe sole tuna pprocessing g plant. man: how many tons for today? second man: : 60 tons. narrator: 25-year-old hearty matamaru is one of 1,70000 solon islanders making a living at the plant. matamaru: that's pretty good. yeah. nice cleaning. better than this one. it's really good. narrator: here, 100 metric tons of tuna are skinned, deboned, processed, canned, and packaged every single day. matamaru: this cannery, it's really i important t to the peoe here, to their lives, to their families, and to the surrounding communities as well. we are worried if the tuna stock is gone 'cause the job here depened very much on the fish that we have in our waters. nanarrator: the same tuna thatat provide jobs at the sole tuna processing plant alslso keep a small fleet of solomon fishing boaats workingng. man: ok, guys, come on. let's go. nnarrator: : the "sololomon rubs

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heading to sea in the hopes of catching 350 metric tons of skipjajack tuna. man: "solomomon emeralald," "son emeraald," copy. narrator: fishmaster junior delaverata grew up in the solomomons and commands a crew of his fellow islanders. he says technology hahas become anan essentialal tool in the bot cocockpit. delaverata:a: it's quite easier now. when t there's a spot t ofh 100 meters awayay, the sonanar n tellll you thehe density of fis, how m many tons there is, how dp itit is, and how fart t is. narrator: it's not long before a lalarge school of tuna are spotted. and the crew races to lay nets and gather the catch. before long, hundreds of tons of tununa start coming up o over te railil. but this kind ofof modern technology i is a doublele-edged sword..

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delaverata: : as a pacifific isislander m myself, i i would e questioon--will ththe next gegeneration e enjoy thisis indy as we do now? it's so very easy to catch fish. that's the worrying part. more boats, more fish harvested from the sea. narrator: fofor now, t the westn and d central pacific is s still the e most productive fishsheryn the planet. but the risk of depleting stocks of tuna sends a signal that has to be heeeede. hudsonon: we know very well l nw and t the ocean is telling g usy clearly that we need to find more susustainable e approacheso ocean utilization. narrator: we know the oceans are talking to us. their message is ththat if we listen, they willll continue to provide for genenerations toto come.

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came and saw w in california thy described as looking like a well-tended garden. it looked like that because it was. the people had lived with the plants, had lived with the animals, and had evolved an ecology based on bringing what they n needed closose to their e villages to maximize the growth of that through our landnd managementnt techniques, to keep it growiwing in close to the village, , to bring g game in ce to the village so they didn't haveve to go fararther and f far afieldld.